Not the same award-winning e-mail: ICA

The Straits Times

18 Nov 2008

PLEASE refer to the letter by Mr Jeff Koh, 'Award-winning e-mail' (Nov 6).

We thank Mr Koh for his well wishes to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on its recent win of a government technology award.

The ICA's new e-Visitor program clinched the award in the Service Innovation category. This program is a seamless and hassle-free amalgamation of e-services designed to make it more convenient for foreigners to apply for immigration facilities with ICA.

However, this is not the feedback system mentioned in Mr Koh's letter. The e-mail feedback system receives significant volumes of e-mail messages daily. The e-mail queries span a spectrum of issues, ranging from general inquiries to case-specific (for example, applications or appeals) questions. For the latter, the processing time may be longer as such case-specific queries require further investigation and careful consideration. Mr Koh would receive an acknowledgement of his e-mail and an answer to his queries as soon as practicable.

Feedback is important to ICA, as it helps us understand the expectations and problems of the people we attend to. Therefore, we request Mr Koh to contact our senior customer relations executive, Mr Wee Yew Boon, on 6391-6340

so we can find out more details from him for follow up and to find out the reason for the delay in the response to his queries.

Jerald Koh
Senior Public and Internal Communications Executive
Immigration and Checkpoints Authority


Award-winning e-mail
'This promise of 'as soon as possible' takes three to four weeks to fulfil.'

The Straits Times

18 Nov2008

MR JEFF KOH: 'I applaud the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on clinching a government technology award, ('ICA clinches regional service award with e-visitor', Oct 25).
But there is room for improvement. While it is true that applying for visas and other services is a breeze, writing an e-mail message via the program is another matter. One gets an auto reply message that says something like this: 'We are experiencing high volume of e-mails and will respond to your queries as soon as possible.' But this promise of 'as soon as possible', takes three to four weeks to fulfil. E-mail is supposed to be a swift communication tool. More can be done to enhance ICA's e-visitor program.'